Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Seminarians and the Pope

Students in Rome and I think at other seminaries wear cassocks when assisting at liturgical functions, in my final year at Wonersh the Rector decided it wasn't part of his vision of nu-Church and banned it. Twenty eight years on his ban still continues, so our lads from Wonersh were apparently pushed away from the Holy Father in the photo session. Sad!

7 comments:

One of 'our lads from Wonersh' was my son, and yes, on the footage I saw, he was right at the back, barely visible at all! Any viewers who didn't know that the suited young men were also seminarians, might have thought they were seminary staff.

There must still be a question about how to benefit from this visit? I harbour a Newman like pessimism. I look at the hideous program of catechetics in our diocese (run by the laity of course) and wonder how will we attract and retain converts?

I have been a Catholic for over 50 years and yet to hear a sermon on faith and reason from ANY priest. Is it beyond all of them? I had never considered the issue before the election of Pope Benedict.

What have we to offer Britain other than degrading liturgies and weak post-Mass coffee?

Let us see the secular press spin the Vatican bank story. Come on BBC, start ridiculing us on Question Time and in so doing send us back to the reservation where we belong. We are not ready for the town square.

Father, I have to correct you here. All English mainland seminaries wear albs during liturgy. The seminarians were asked to help distributing Holy Communion and for that they were to wear cassock and cotta (the option of wearing an alb was added at the last moment). Seminarians were to wear a cassock or suit for the photo.

I don't believe there was however an organized attempt to push the non-cassock wearing seminarians to the back.

I am in total agreement and that is what we all seek. I simply pose the question, is the current model of the UK Church facilitating that mission? We are currently on a blog addressing the Oscott encounter where some might cynically remark (if cynicism was appropriate in the current euphoria) a smokescreen was in operation.

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna

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